Sunday newsagency marketing tip: tell a story and drive sales

Now more than ever we need to tell a story on the shop floor of our retail newsagencies. We need to do more than expect products or a single display to work on their own. We’re competing for attention and the best way to get this is with displays of depth.

In retail today, we need to connect products and ranges from suppliers and bring them together to offer a more complete pitch to our customers. The better the story the more we sell.

This is what telling a story in retail is about – offering depth to a brand, a range or a buying opportunity or occasion.

Here’s a simple example of story-telling in retail. The photo shows placement of the Hallmark licenced AFL range of cards, wrap, team song buttons and other items, the Beanie Kids licenced AFL range for 2014 and, in the middle, the AFL record for the AFL season opener. This is a story – pitched to AFL fans and people who buy for AFL fans.

While the Hallmark stand or the Beanie Kids stand on their own has depth because of the products on offer, they each are not enough of a story in my view, not enough to attract the number of shoppers we need to achieve the sales and, in particular, basket depth necessary to give us the sales rewards we need.

The three displays together deliver better value purchases with more customers buying from each than if the stands were separated. This is a key commercial value in taking time to tell a story.

It can be hard work telling a story where you don’t have a unifying licence or brand to work with. It can take some misses before you find out the stories that work best in your business. Invest the time, tell stories and compete with big competitors who have a head office dictating the stories they tell.